Is it better to live with a roommate or to live alone?

IELTS Writing Task 2 with sample answer.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Some people think it is better to live with a roommate. Other people prefer to live alone. Which do you prefer?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer:
Since leaving home 10 years ago, I have always lived with someone else. Most people my age are either cohabiting with their lovers or they want to mow down on expenses by sharing apartment with others. For me, I indeed enjoy the rent savings that comes with sharing the flat, but also I prefer to have roommate so that I do not feel lonely ever. But besides these reasons just mentioned, there are several other advantages to having a roommate.

To start with, if people share space with roommate, they also can share the cost of household essentials. When you live with other people, it is everyone’s obligation to clean the house and share the cost of the cleaning staffs. Take my experience for example. I live with one friend of mine. We not only share the cost of cleaning supplies, but also clean kitchen by rotation. The same goes for attending to other general household chores. That is to say that having a roommate means less work waiting for you.

Similarly, you can split entertainment fees. It is typically common for roommates to split utilities and Internet connection cost. When you live in the same flat, there is no reason to have more than one Internet connection. Same goes for newspapers and magazines. If you both like a particular newspaper and magazine, you go in half on the subscription.

Likewise, having a roommate offers opportunity to become more social. It may provide you with a lifelong friend. In addition to this, you can make friendship with your roommate’s friends. This also represents a nice opportunity to web your network. That means that you may have access to all of your roommate’s connections.

However, some people argue that living with roommate creates awkward situations. For example, they point that a roommate may not be reliable when it comes to making payments like house rent or utilities fees, and eventually it will cost you. In that case, I would like to say that if you judge few thing his like financial condition or behavior, you can be able to avoid this kind of odd situation. Another concern they express is privacy. They contend that when you live with a roommate, you have very little privacy. From my experience, I can firmly say it does not problem at all. This is because it can be fixed mutually.

To reiterate, despite few limitation, having a roommate has enormous benefits. Therefore, I would rather live with roommate than live alone.